Electric car conversion: Project ForkenSwift

[MetroMPG]

Originally Posted by Christopher Jordan

Outstanding video! I am a little dissapointed not tohear *beep*beep*beep*beep* in reverse! ;-)

I was going to say the same thing about the pedestrian who backed off the sidewalk. We actually still have the reverse beeper from the forklift. Maybe we'll stick that under the hood too.

[bennelson]

Ha ha ha ha!

That is exactly the video that I WAS thinking of!!!!!


You should do that. Seriously.

I am also considering adding the forklift HORN to my car. It does NOT sound like a car horn - it sounds like a seal (the marine animal)

Reverse beeper? Not sure if I took that off the forklift or not. I have no clue what it looks like!!!! Good idea though. Maybe I can make the strobe light go on when I go into reverse.

[MetroMPG]

I have the same horn in the box of leftover junk from the forklift - I know exactly what you're talking about. :P

[MetroMPG]

Two firsts today:

1. Somebody noticed that the car is electric! Okay - technically this is the second time. But the first time (from the video, "Hey- why's your car so quiet?!?"), the car wasn't legally on the road yet.

I was at the grocery store and there was a couple putting stuff in their car in the next parking spot over. When I got in and drove away, the guy stopped what he was doing, turned, and watched from when I left the parking spot all the way to the exit. Proves nothing, but he was so obvious, I figured he knew. Plus, before I turned, he pointed me out to his wife and she looked too.

2. First ForkenSwift experiment: Experiment: coastdown in gear vs. out of gear

[Peakster]

Originally Posted by MetroMPG

1. Somebody noticed that the car is electric!

What? I totally thought you'd be showing off the F.S. at every single person who fills their SUV at a gas station! Isn't the local media all over it yet?

[MetroMPG]

But I don't take it to gas stations any more!

The local media don't know about it. Yet... But I don't really want to be in the local media :P

[MetroMPG]

Big news! New charger...



This arrived in the mail today. A re-manufactured, proper 3-stage 48v charger donated (!) to Project ForkenSwift by an E.E. who works for the company that makes them in in Vancouver, B.C. (Burnaby, actually). I helped him track down some parts for his gen. 1 SuzukiClone EV.

Delta-Q chargers.

We have been using a semi-dumb 24v 10A charger, which forces us to split the pack and charge in 2 parallel strings of 24v each. It was originally for a commercial floor cleaner, I think. The only reason I call it semi-dumb instead of fully dumb is because it has LED's that show 80% and 100% charge status based on a preset voltage, and a shut off timer when (if) the pack reaches the 100% voltage level (which has never been 100% reliable because the batts are old, and some don't come all the way up to the expected voltage. Lately, it's been working about 2/3 of the time).

So this new charger is almost 4x more powerful! Faster! And probably more efficient too - which will show up in the car's fuel log soon, I hope. I'll know in a couple of days.

I already used it tonight - worked like a charm!

[bennelson]

Cool to have the new charger! And DONATED NO LESS!!!!

[capn_r]

I have a question regarding your lovejoy coupler between your motor and transaxle. In the pictures showing the modification for your internal spline motor it appeared that the transaxle half was already splined. (post 156, third picture down)If that is correct would you possibly have a part number for that coupler half and if not maybe contact information where I may find out? Thanks!

[MetroMPG]

Hi, capn_r -

The transaxle input shaft is splined, yes. But the lovejoy coupler was modified to fit - it didn't come this way.

We scavenged the splined clutch hub from the Geo's clutch disc, and then bored out the lovejoy and had the hub welded into it (and then ground it smooth & spray painted it, which is why it looks OEM).

We got this idea from Dr Larry @ EVconvert.com - http://www.evconvert.com/article/larrys-ev